Continuing on with my awards predictions, let’s continue on with the Jack Adams for Coach of the Year. There are many candidates and each deserve strong consideration, but which coach will come out on top? Let’s look at the candidates:

The end of the year is usually left to positive reports on those who overachieve. In our zeal to extenuate the positive, we forget those who underachieve, fail, or just plain stick. Without further adieu, the NHL 2002 Bizarro Awards, exclusively on Hockeytraderumors.com.

The Montreal Canadiens clinched a play-off berth yesterday in a thrilling 4-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators, but the big story last night was the return of one of hockey’s best players, Saku Koivu, returning from seven months of chemotherapy to record 8:22 in game time and earn the first star of the game.

Jarome Iginla is going to be a RFA at the end of this season, and he is going to win the scoring race by a considerable margin. As a canidate for the Hart Trophy on a nonplayoff team, this guy is going to want a ton of cash for the next few seasons. Money, that the Calgary Flames probably won’t be able to put together.

I know it seems a little late for the third quarter, but I’ve decided the fourth will come at the conclusion of the play-offs, so, techinically, I still have some room for this quarter. Anyway, here is this quarter’s list of those who are doing better than expected and those who would just be better off being rink rats.

It seems as though with Pavel Bure, Eric Lindros, Thereon Fleury, Brian Leetch, Mark Messier and Mike Richter (amongst others) that the New York Rangers still believe they can buy Stanley Cup success. The fact of the matter is that this team who has a payroll well in excess of most (if not all) is still many points behind teams like the Phoenix Coyotes who have only half the payroll and apparent talent? So why is it that despite having about 5 or 6 all-stars/internationals that the Rangers are going to miss the playoffs for the fifth straight year?

A few days ago, Toronto Star columnist Jim Coyle wrote a piece on the issue of road hockey, debating it’s merits and wondering why politicians are considering banning the great Canadian tradition. Even though it’s not an ice hockey story, I felt this is an important subject to bring up with the HockeyTradeRumours.com community, because I’m sure many of us had played road hockey (like I did) and because so many of our hockey heroes played the game to get better at their ice game.